El Fadrí bell tower

El Fadrí watches over the square without leaning against the church. That separation explains its Valencian name, meaning bachelor. The octagonal tower rises 58 metres, and building work begun in the fifteenth century reached completion in 1604. Inside, it brings together functions we now tend to imagine separately: a public clock, an ecclesiastical prison, the bell ringer’s home and the bell chamber. From ground level, notice how the cornices organise the masonry and how the silhouette changes as you walk around it. Bells once communicated events to people unable to read a written notice. MUCC publishes visiting information and describes roughly two hundred spiral steps: check availability before climbing. This outdoor explanation also makes sense without undertaking the ascent.